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The Plea - The Dreamers Stadium (Review)

Review by Jack Foley

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IndieLondon Rating: 4 out of 5

SELDOM has an album name seemed so apt when listening to The Dreamers Stadium, the debut album from Donegal rock merchants The Plea.

For while they’re only really setting out on their journey towards hoped for super-stardom, the songs that encompass this particular LP have the feel and confidence of a band who have been plying their trade for years.

And we’re talking big stadium sized acts like U2 and Coldplay here, which is no mean feat.

While battling the undercurrent in Ireland, the four-some have pegged their wares elsewhere across Europe and their unapologetic anthemic hooks have been garnering a steady stream of fans, and deservedly so as there’s lots to savour here.

Opening track Staggers Anthem has already been embraced in Germany and is a euphoric stadium filler that’s rife with big riffs, soaring choruses and lyrics that are full of empowerment (“get drunk with me, we’ll fall asleep, share one last drink me and you”).

It’s also a song that embodies the best elements of classic U2 (Denny Doherty’s vocals especially) as well as Snow Patrol.

Praise Be combines hand-clap beats with power riffs and an easy-going, toe-tapping energy; Feel It Ticking broods nicely before throwing in more U2 style theatrics, and Windchime places the pianos a little more to the fore for a mid-tempo, slow-building Coldplay moment that is full of emotion (“weren’t you the one writing love songs about suicide?”).

Elsewhere, another favourite arrives in the anthemic, melody-strewn Oh Ah Yay, which is made for shouting along with at the top of your voice (it’s already been picked up by US college radio), while former single Send It Out is a blistering rock-pop anthem that clearly has big stadiums in its sights. It’s passionately delivered, rousing and sweeping in the way that songs from all big bands should be (with more than a passing hint of U2’s New Year’s Eve).

Out Like A Light is another of the type of soaring rock-pop moments that The Plea are fast specialising in, albeit slower building, while Too Young To Die rounds things off in suitably impassioned, slow-building, epic style.

If they continue in this vein, The Plea won’t be dreaming of playing super-sized stadiums for too much longer. It’s within touching distance.